Good morning…
Today we wake to a special day. Wikipedia explains: “GivingTuesday, often stylized as #GivingTuesday for the purposes of hashtag activism, is the Tuesday after Thanksgiving in the United States. It is touted as a ‘global generosity movement unleashing the power of people and organizations to transform their communities and the world.'”
Well, I feel like we as a written word community, empowered by our Women’s Ministry at Northside Church, live a wildly giving life – hashtag #GivingAlways.
We invest in PAWkids. In the past month, I have dropped off over $6,000 worth of your gift cards, generous checks and food items to help feed our neighbors in Grove Park. Our Evening Mission Circle also gathered, packaged and donated sanity supplies for the young women in the community. At a birthday party for one of my friends, people brought gift cards and canned goods instead of gifts, and our final Sunday class will follow suit, bringing food items and gift cards to donate to the ongoing PAWkids Food Drive. The staff handed out thank you receipts and hosted a thank you dinner for volunteers with families from the neighborhood. The need this year is incredibly high, and our friends downtown are deeply grateful for our hands on generosity.
Twice a month, volunteers from our Morning Mission Circle create forty weekend bags for food insecure families who attend Sutton Middle School, and our well attended November gathering included collecting food and assembling Thanksgiving Boxes for twenty “in need” families at Sutton, with over 30 gift cards to supplement those boxes. For our Christmas project, we will collect lots of items for Good Samaritan’s satellite clinic at Restoration House.
“Hi Sue,” she wrote. “I was just going through the evaluations from the women’s ISP last week and wanted to share some of the quotes the women shared because its so heartwarming to hear the impact of these retreats!”
- “I love being in silence with God. I don’t get much alone time right now.”
- “My favorite activity was the evening art therapy—making the scrap journal was very creative and therapeutic. I loved the amazing nature walk, chapel, trail, and discovering nature.”
- “I learned about the Spiritual Exercises and I want to really incorporate them into my spiritual walk.”
- “My favorite activity was making the collage out of my notebook and turning it into my own journal to talk with God in.”
- “This retreat helped me know God is near through everything in my life.”
- “I learned I am loved and forgiven and not punished for who I am.”
- “I learned that I love the Catholic religion.”
- “From the moment I walked on campus, I felt God’s arms around me.”
- “I wish I could walk the trails again, they were my favorite.”
- “Those pillows were phenomenal.”
“Thank you so much for all you do to champion our ISP retreats!” she concluded. “I love stepping into the dining room when the women are there and getting to experience a bit of the Holy Spirit energy in the room.”
Giving grows out of the heart—otherwise, you’ve reluctantly grumbled “yes” because you felt you had to or because you couldn’t say “no,” but this isn’t the way God wants it. For we know that “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7, VOICE).
This Tuesday morning, we are witnessing the generosity movement as it unleashes the power of people to transform our communities and the world. The way we live this day becomes the way we live our life. Expanding into every day, #GivingAlways is an energizing way of life, inspired by the relentless love of our relational God.
…Sue…
